We are the Turtle Group here at www.3fatchicks.com. We welcome you to join us as we work toward good health and fitness in a persistent manner. As our inspiration, we use the race between the turtle and the hare where the turtle was the victor because he didn't give up. We believe in keepin' on by using the skills and techinques we have learned from experience to keep us on track. We believe in giving each other support. Good luck to us all!
Judy
Itryharder
(for Lin and Lauren)

I had a nice weekend topped off by a visit from our grandson and dd. We swam and had a tiny BBQ. I had made baked beans (2points/1/2 cup) and I'll give you the recipe right now. It has no fat, and much less salt and sugar than the canned beans. Since I made them with a 1#bag of dried pinto beans, they were also cheap and plentiful. Here's the recipe:

Slow Cooker Saucy Beans
(The recipe calls for bacon or salt pork, but I ignored that)

3. Cover, cook on low heat for 8-10 hours or on high heat for 4-5 hours. Stir before serving.

Serves 12 2 points/1/2c. serving

This looks way complicated-----but it's easy to do. I let the beans sit in the covered Dutch oven overnight and then proceeded with the recipe. Great with any grilled meat. Great for a party or BBQ and also can be frozen in individual servings.

Hi Turtles! I'm really sorry I have been MIA for so long! I have to be out of the house I have been renting by this Wednesday night, so I have been doing some massive cleaning and moving over the past week. I still have a lot to do, but I finally got the 2 cords of wood stacked yesterday, which is a big relief! Yesterday was the first time the temps didn't hit 90+ (88 instead), so I took advantage of it and moved the wood. My lower back is a little sore today, but I'm surprised at how good I feel.
I have to get ready for work! Have a great night everyone!!!

KimL, so good to hear from you. My goodness! You've had a lot to do in the heat. You sound terrific. Keep on keepin' on!

Hey, I checked my calendar and in the last ten days, I've gotten on the eight times. Each time, I put in an hour and walked more than three miles. I'm counting on the fact that this should help me lose some weight. I'm cooking fish and asparagus for dinner tomorrow right before my WI and hoping that's enough to see the scale move in the right direction! A : would be very welcome.

Directions:
1) You can throw all of this in a crockpot and cook for 6-8 hours
OR
2) You can do the stove top method which is what I do - brown the ground turkey and drain any excess grease - In a large pot start to cook the vegetables with a little bit of broth or water until they are fork tender. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook on med to low temps for about an hour or until seasoned through. I added my tomato paste about half way through the final cooking time.

Rainy here today but it is supposed to be this way just about all week with very high - humid temps. My veggie garden is chugging along, I did not go out last night to check the cuc's which means I will have lots of them when I go out this evening if it stops raining long enough... they grow super fast!

I skipped the gym last night but will go tonight to walk on the treadmill and take a yoga class. DH and I took the dogs to the park last night instead and walked around so everyone enjoyed that!

I posted the chili recipe that I had talked about in the past - I did it from an online version that I found and have to double check it when I get home but I think that I have it right... I will post corrections if they are needed.

Judy: Great job on the exercise! You are doing wonderful, I just know that your W/I will be awesome! Thanks so much for posting the bean recipe, I have it copied over to my PC and will print it for this weekend! I wanted to ask you... does Ariana ever post on here anymore? I miss her, she was so inspirational!

Kim: Good luck with the move... moving is stressful but it sure sounds like you are handling it really well! The hot temps sure don't help!

Tessa: How are you doing lately?

Cherry: What is new with you?

Bandit: How are things going up your way? Anything new with you? I got my first TOPS magazine yesterday in the mail but have not had time to look at it yet... I am excited though!

Hi Turtles,
Princess, thanks for the chili recipe. I'm printing it out and will enjoy it, I'm sure.
As far as Ariana, our young Turtle who made flannel quilts and exercised like crazy and was sooooooo inspirational, alas she hasn't posted here in a long time. Ariana, if you're out there and reading, please let us know what you're up too. You are missed!

Have a great day. My goal today will be to make sure I don't sabotage myself. My weight could go either way for my WI. The scale isn't moving, but it's not going up either. : is my dream!
Judy
234.6/190.4/189 and closer to goal

I hope that everyone is doing well and having a good week. I went to Yoga class last night and it was a good class, sore today but that is the way it goes I guess... will be even more sore tomorrow... LOL. The scale is not moving for me this week at all but I know it is a combination of a lot of things so will just try harder and keep at it. No gym tonight but will get out for a walk instead as it is not supposed to rain today.

I am still waiting for my book to arrive... getting eager to read it so I sure hope it comes soon!

Judy: Do you W/I on Tuesday or Wednesday evenings? I can never seem to get it straight but either way I hope it is a wonderful occasion! The chili recipe is good and you can adjust however you want to really. Not really the best time of year for it but it is a nice change when you need it. It would be great to see Ariana post again, you are right, she always had words of wisdom and was a positive force here with the turtles...

Bandit: Have not seen you online lately, I hope that all is well with you!

Princess - nice job with the yoga, I am sure that will help with your weight loss. Chili recipe sounds delicious - thanks.

Just trying to stay cool and have lots of things going on. This weekend I have my ladies group 2nd anniversary dinner Fri night (then some of us are going dancing) a wedding on Sat & wedding brunch Sun a.m. then dinner with my gf Sun evening. As well, my dd gets back from Mexico Thurs night & looking forward to a visit with her as well. This will definately be a tough eating weekend but hopefully the dancing (and trying to get in some walks)
will help.

Judy - Good luck at the scales this week.

Cherry - hope you are OK, tough with little ones especially when they are sick. I remember eating up all the little bits my dd left on her plate & I am sure they added up to lots of extra points throughout the day. Now, I keep a container for the birds/squirrels and throw in those leftovers for them.

Kim - Moving & cleaning in the heat must be very difficult. Congrats for your efforts.

Tonight have my final weigh in with Wed chapter, then off to another one on Thurs next week. It will probably be alittle tense since I really don't know exactly who is transferring, so will just get in/out quickly and see who shows up next week on the Thurs evening.

I am really looking forward to a new start with hopefully more positive attitudes.

After a few weigh ins of going up and up yesterday I had a weigh in of 241.6 which is down by -.2 So atleast i am going in the right direction. This morning with my sneak weigh in which is in no way official i was down to 240.4 so i was excited to see that. I need to get in some exercise. I know that it can help with depression because it releases endorphins or something like that. My 3 year old has been very destructive lately and so i am having a hard time dealing with that.

Judy- Hoping you get a great weigh-in. cant wait to find out.
Bandit-Thanks for the encouragement. It is hard not to eat off the kids left overs if i am feeling hungry or snacky.
Princess-Not a whole lot is new lately. Only we had to get a new air conditioner because ours suddenly quit on Monday. Love the added expenses.
Kim-Great to hear from you. That is a lot of work to do in that heat.
LinS- How are you doing?

Bandit, wow, you have a really busy weekend coming up. Luckily you are sociable and have figured out how to avoid the biggest pitfalls! Good luck at your new TOPS meeting coming up. Maybe tonight will be a little awkward, but your next meeting should be great. :

Today at my WI, it was disappointing. I've had a great month and I've managed to gain .6#. I know that isn't much, but I'm killing myself and the scale is going the wrong direction. My leader told me what I'm doing isn't working and I've got to change it up! She feels I'm eating too little food. So, I've decided starting tomorrow to do filling foods and use some maintenance points for a serving of bread daily. I think this may work because when I would eat on the Core program, I did well. This will work. I know it. I was happily surprised to see how many foods I like are on the filling food list. Onward and downward!
Judy
234.6/190.6/anything below 190#

It's been a wild n' whacky couple weeks... My cat ended up at the vet's - that you knew about. She's doing great, eating her pork and rice food and luckily the other girls love it too. She's also on Prednisone now too - so I have a 'roid kitty that can't eat or drink enough. Well, SHE could use the weight on her. She's always been a bit scrawny.

Then my Dad came for his yearly visit for a week. Work's been busy (which is excellent!) and I've had horse and dog duty which ties up my days too. But I've missed you guys!!!!

Oh, and yes, there's still the $#%&(@ rabbits. Still waiting for my handy guy to show up (in Central Oregon time has different settings besides slow and fast, when you need something done it's usually set to "whenever"). I've given up on refilling the holes - they just redig and I think they are liking the challenge. I gave up on the Liquid Fence, by now they're dabbing it on as perfume because it probably smells better than Eau de Rabbit Stink. Chicken wire installed from under the house is the last option before I run out of options and send the little buck toothed brats to the great carrot patch in the sky. It will break my heart - but that's far less expensive than a burst pipe this winter or God knows what other damage they're causing down there.

Weight wise, considering my Dad is a diabetic, that had triple bypass in November, doesn't watch his blood sugar, has a serious sweet tooth and filled my counter with M&Ms, Mother's cookies, 'Nilla Wafers and trail mix, has a McDonald's habit and literally listed all the places he wanted to eat when he got up here - I didn't do bad at all. Actually was down .6 after his visit. I told him we would go to McD's as soon as I was done with MY breakfast and at the restaurants I just made the best choices I could and took 1/2 home. Since I hadn't been to WW since 6/22 last night's weigh in showed a 3.8 pound loss, bringing me to 12.8 pounds since rejoining.

Princess, I loooove yoga, but it's been too long since I've done it. I think I'll do some and be sore right along with ya!

Bandit, good luck with the new group. Fingers crossed for ya that it's a good one and you still enjoy going.

Cherry, congrats on the loss!!! ANY loss should be celebrated!

Judy, I've done it, my friends have done it... exercising too much, or not getting in the bare minimum Points will backfire. Our bodies don't realize there's a fast food place on every corner and when it detects a serious food shortage it's going to reserve its energy (calories) for what it perceives as an oncoming famine. Sounds like you've got a good plan in place. Should be interesting to see what happens next week!

Judy: Ugh! How frustrating! Core/Filling Foods just might do it for you, it was a great idea your leader had... I don't know much, but I do know this, the lower you go the harder it is... LOL. You have come sooo far though... and you will go further yet... just hang in there we are all cheering for you!

Itryharder~ Awesome job getting on the treadmill so much!!! Have you tried switching up your exercise also? Trying new stuff could also help jump start your loss.

Princess1122~ Chili recipe looks super yummy! I missed the first round of my cukes and picked them the other day... HUGE, saving for tongue pickles... How did your walk go today?

bandit2~ Sounds like a crazy weekend! How did your WI go?
CherryAutumn~ Congrats on seeing the scale moving in the right way! How is your kid doing, still wild? I''ve been helping take care of my best friends 3 year-old while she's gone, and she is a little terror! Love her, but am struggling with what I should do when she starts throwing and breaking things because she's mad that she's not getting her way.

Still moving... Down to just needing to get my bed a bureau into storage, followed by some massive cleaning. I got a lot done today, and my landlord told me that she won't be up there until tomorrow afternoon, so that gives me even more time to get more stuff done. I'm trying not to let myself stress out about it as I have enough going one right now that is super stressful without letting this get to me also. I spent all day working so hard that I barely ate anything, and then made up for it when I was working. I'm probably going to see a gain on the scale tonight, but hopefully it won't hang around after that. I just need to get back on a regular eating schedule!

Hot and humid day here today... very steamy! I got so busy after work yesterday that before I knew it the clock was saying that it was 9:30 PM so I did not get my walk in... I stopped at the grocery store after work, then went home and got the dogs out and the house picked up, supper made and worked in the garden to get the veg's picked that were ready... and then it was 9:30... ugh! Have W/I tonight but of course my TOM showed up this morning but that is the way it is... no use getting stressed over it. The scale will say whatever it wants to and I will just keep moving on.

Tessa: Yep, the bunny stink thing is cute for us to hear about but not so cute when it is you that is going thru it I am sure... I am with Kim though... still makes me giggle! You sound like a really busy lady! Dog, horses, bunnies! Wow! Great job on the weight loss!!!

Judy: How are you doing this morning? Keep at it, you are doing so good and remember... we are turtles for a reason... although I know that statement does not help you very much.

Bandit: Wow! You are busy right now... sounds like food will be a challenge but you normally handle it soooo well... I know you will get thru it and have a great time! I am not so sore this week with the Yoga as I was last week, and that is a wonderful thing! How did W/I go?

Kim: Good luck with the cleaning and moving... you sound super busy also! Do you have a new place picked out yet? No walk for me last night... I let myself get side tracked to easy... I need to get better at that! Walking used to be a priority, it came first before supper, housework, etc. I need to work on getting it back up to the top of my daily list again!